Don't be shy to take on a little two-week side project. These five months will be the most precious three years of your academic journey.

🌍 Guest Lecture at HIOH
Prof. Lee White – conservationist, biologist & former Environment Minister of Gabon – speaks on:
🎤 “From science to global policy – Saving the Congo Basin’s rainforests”
From field research to COP26, bridging science & policy - Join us for an inspiring talk!
#OneHealth

An emerging human eye disease is associated with aquatic virus zoonotic infection - Nature Microbiology Covert mortality nodavirus, a pathogen previously known to cause important losses in shrimp aquaculture, is identified as being a potential causative agent of an emerging and severe ocular disease in ...

A new study in Nature Microbiology reveals that an eye condition called POH-VAU (persistent ocular hypertensive viral anterior uveitis) is caused by covert mortality nodavirus (CMNV) - a virus that's been devastating shrimp farms for over a decade.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Findings suggest duikers should
be carefully examined as sources of MPXV and other orthopoxviruses in humans.

Preprint: doi.org/10.21203/rs....

With @helmholtz-hioh.bsky.social @helmholtzhzi.bsky.social @scs22.bsky.social @wwf.de #FLI #WWF-DRC @taichimpproject.bsky.social @lpzoo.org + many more.

Monkeypox virus emergence in wild chimpanzees reveals distinct clinical outcomes and viral diversity - Nature Microbiology Monkeypox is caused by an emerging zoonotic virus. This study describes a detailed investigation into monkeypox outbreaks in chimpanzees through non-invasive environmental sampling, virus genomics, pa...

To assess if duikers serve as intermediate hosts for MPXV,
we revisited a diet analysis from an MPXV outbreak in chimps, which supports epidemiological link to duiker consumption (doi.org/10.1038/s415...), suggesting duikers can serve as intermediate hosts for chimps and thus likely also humans.

We found >21% of pellets contained non-duiker mammal DNA, including species infected with MPXV in this ecosystem. Coupled with camera trap footage, results point towards frequent scavenging by duikers, which may expose them to orthopoxviruses (and other pathogens?).

We detected orthopoxviruses in 2 duiker carcasses from bushmeat markets in the DRC as well as in a duiker carcass found in Taï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire. To investigate how duikers, which are classically described as herbivores, might be exposed, we performed a diet analysis metabarcoding feces.

These small African antelopes may help mpox spread Researchers find evidence that duikers, hunted and eaten across sub-Saharan Africa, can harbor the deadly virus

Nice coverage by @kakape.bsky.social in @science.org of our preprint, where we present data showing orthopoxviruses, including MPXV, infect duikers, which are popular bushmeat in many mpox endemic regions. Highlights lots more about orthopoxvirus ecology to explore:
www.science.org/content/arti...

And of course - we pay lots of taxes to keep systems like this in place so trade offs and all that.

It’s not perfect and there are caps to the salary you get and lots to improve, including for young academic parents - but my heart aches for many parents in the US who have to make brutal decisions.

America is crazy… Germany requires employers/state give mothers 6 week prenatal leave, 8 weeks postnatal, plus the state offers 12-14 months that parents can split between them paid. And both parents can then take up to 3 years unpaid leave / child and job needs to be held for them during that time.

Environmental DNA Call for Papers The Burgeoning Potential for Terrestrial Vertebrate Monitoring with eDNA Environmental DNA is an open access eDNA journal that provides an international forum for basic & applied research on all areas of eDNA analysis.

For the #eDNA crowd: we are putting together a special issue about terrestrial vertebrate biomonitoring: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal.... If you have questions or ideas - happy to discuss!

Data Organization in Spreadsheets Karl W. Broman & Kara H. Woo Pages 2-10 | Received 01 Jun 2017, Accepted author version posted online: 29 Sep 2017, Published online: 24 Apr 2018 1. Introduction 2. Be Consistent 3. Choose Good Names for Things 4. Write Dates as YYYY-MM-DD 5. No Empty Cells 6. Put Just One Thing in a Cell 7. Make it a Rectangle 8. Create a Data Dictionary 9. No Calculations in the Raw Data Files 10. Do Not Use Font Color or Highlighting as Data 11. Make Backups 12. Use Data Validation to Avoid Errors 13. Save the Data in Plain Text Files ABSTRACT Spreadsheets are widely used software tools for data entry, storage, analysis, and visualization. Focusing on the data entry and storage aspects, this article offers practical recommendations for organizing spreadsheet data to reduce errors and ease later analyses. The basic principles are: be consistent, write dates like YYYY-MM-DD, do not leave any cells empty, put just one thing in a cell, organize the data as a single rectangle (with subjects as rows and variables as columns, and with a single header row), create a data dictionary, do not include calculations in the raw data files, do not use font color or highlighting as data, choose good names for things, make backups, use data validation to avoid data entry errors, and save the data in plain text files.

Every day is a good day for sharing one of the most useful papers about research data ever written. PLEASE get your people to understand and follow this advice.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

🎉 Congratulations to Ariane Düx on successfully defending her dissertation! 🎓
A wonderful conclusion to years of intensive research—Thank you for your inspiring work and valuable contribution to research 🌟 All the best and continued success! #PhD #OneHealth #Research #Science #AcademicLife

🚨 Hiwi-Job in der Wissenschaftskommunikation!
Du studierst und hast Lust auf Social Media, Website, Gestaltung & Events?
Dann unterstütze uns als studentische/wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft (w/m/d).
👉 www.uni-greifswald.de/universitaet...

#HiwiJob #Greifswald #SciComm #OneHealth

Adapted from Axelsson et al. 2013 Fig 2c: Histogram showing the distribution of diploid amylase copy number in wolf (n=35, blue) and dog (n=136, red). Dogs carry more copies of the starch-digesting gene AMY2B than wolves. Additional copies make dogs better than wolves at digesting starchy foods like grains & vegetables.

Dogs evolved to eat your leftovers! Comparing dog & wolf genomes revealed dogs have up to 30 EXTRA copies of the amylase gene (AMY2B) that helps digest starch. This is a key genomic signature of living alongside humans & table scraps for thousands of years 🐕 www.nature.com/articles/nat... #2026MMM

Capturing dynamic phage–pathogen coevolution by clinical surveillance - Nature The acquisition of a parasitic anti-phage mobile genetic element, PLE11, showing potent anti-phage activity against cocirculating ICP1, and the subsequent evolution of ICP1 to escape this defense, are...

Capturing dynamic phage–pathogen coevolution by clinical surveillance

"we capture the acquisition of a parasitic anti-phage mobile genetic element, PLE11, that initiated a selective sweep coinciding with the largest cholera outbreak in recent records. "

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

How a “Problem” Plant Is Saving a Forest YouTube video by Ecosia

Friendly reminder that simply changing the search engine you use can contribute to forest #restoration efforts! A cool video highlighting our efforts in Uganda's Kibale National Park: youtu.be/gNQjGYqaN0w
@ecosiasearch.bsky.social @helmholtzhzi.bsky.social @helmholtz-hioh.bsky.social

Detecting disease progression from animal movement using hidden Markov models We demonstrate how (H)HMMs can be tailored to different epidemiological scenarios and provide a template workflow for developing and selecting Hidden Markov models to infer disease status from animal...

Published in @jappliedecology.bsky.social!😀

We show how (Hierarchical) Hidden Markov Models ((H)HMMs) can be tailored to different epidemiological scenarios to infer disease status directly from animal movement data.

🔗 ttps://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.70323

3,500 years of sheeppox virus evolution inferred from archaeological and codicological genomes www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02...

🚨 New research traces Mpox (MPXV)🧬 Fire-footed rope squirrels are a likely reservoir. In Taï NP,mangabeys caught MPXV by eating them—showing a direct spillover pathway & zoonotic risk.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#Mpox
@taichimpproject.bsky.social @jangogarten.bsky.social @scs22.bsky.social

Genome contamination may lead to an overestimation of horizontal gene transfer inferences - Nature Communications Nature Communications - Genome contamination may lead to an overestimation of horizontal gene transfer inferences

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Approximate timeframe: ~9–12 months (flexible start, from mid-2026). Ideal candidate would have a strong interest in molecular methods, biodiversity conservation, and/or global health. Travel, lab work and nice team! Happy to answer questions. Please spread the word! @helmholtz-hioh.bsky.social

We are offering a Masters project with Benno Kreuels at the BNITM, with aim of developing #eDNA tools to monitor #snakes and help determine snake species involved with bites. Involves work with patient samples and combines lab experiments, bioinfo analyses, and testing international sample sets.

Heimspiel Wissenschaft - Heimspiel Wissenschaft Heimspiel Wissenschaft bringt Wissenschaftler:innen, die aus ländlichen Regionen stammen, zurück in ihre Heimatorte.

Fantastic :-) Fits well with the great project of heimspiel-wissenschaft.de

Ich wusste nicht, wie sehr ich das gebraucht hatte.
Danke, Weitenhagen und was für eine liebe Gruppe von Community Builders. Und wenn ihr mal eingeladen werdet - kann ich euch nur mut geben das angebot anzunehmen!

Nach einer Stunde+ wollte Joachim Schluss machen und mich nach Hause lassen. Aber dann kam noch die Stunde mit fragen und ideen. Und dann sollte es schluss sein - aber kamm noch mehr Ideen - von geschichten über Vogelarbeit zu Stoffwindeln und Nachhaltigkeit.

Und wow. 40 Menschen an eine, Freitagabend noch wach und witzig, mit kluge Fragen und total vertieft. Lebendiger als jede Lehrveranstaltung die ich seit Covid erlebt habe. Persönlich, offen, freundlich – von globalen Themen bis zum eigenen Hinterhof.

Ein Bier wurde mir angeboten + ich habe alte Slides geöffnet. Joachim stellte mich lieb vor - mit Lebensgesichte und Erinnerung das wir freundliche reden und nicht uns belehren. Und es ging los, mit Geschichten aus dem Dschungel, warum ich Primaten liebe + wie ich zum Thema Krankheitsökologie kam.

Ich kam „pünktlich“ um 19:00 (also 15 Minuten zu spät, MV-Lernkurve) – und war überrascht:
Eine alte Schule, liebevoll renoviert, 40 Leute, U-förmig sitzend und quatschend. Aber Beamer + Leinwand. Sie erwarteten einen Vortrag oder Fotos ;-)